You know who’s not a happy guy this afternoon? That would be J.J. Adams, the deputy sports editor and a man who’s normally very happy. In the middle of our meeting, talking about the Sunday Province and such (don’t you love “and such”? What does it even mean?), J.J. took a call. It was the mechanic. The guy who told J.J. about his motorcycle’s “catastrophic engine failure.” Which I gathered is a bad thing. This call confirmed that it’s worse than bad. It confirmed that fixing this wee problem is going to cost my main man somewhere around, oh, $5,800. Holy crap.

On a happier note, it’s The 2 O’Clock for Friday, which means we are edging ever closer to the weekend. And there’s this news out of Hastings Racecourse: Mario Gutierrez, the Hastings-raised jockey who famously won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes in 2012, will return to Vancouver for Hastings’ B.C. Day races on Aug. 5. Gutierrez, who now calls California’s Del Mar Racetrack home, will compete in two of the three stakes races that day.

Man, when I look back at the events of the spring of 2012, the memories flow back. The Kentucky Derby win was really something, but when you watch the replay of the Preakness, it’s as stunning now as it was then, as Gutierrez and I’ll Have Another nipped Bodemeister at the line. The call on the home stretch is wonderful.

So NFL camps are now in full swing, much to the relief of zillions of fans who must go through some serious withdrawal for the NFL’s annual half-year sabbatical. And there are lots of great stories, but Craig Meyerf, of Pittsburgh’s Post-Gazette, had the smart idea to write about the lives of Steeltown’s less-famous football players: the guys who play for the Arena Football League’s third-year team in Pittsburgh, the Power. There’s the guy who’s a bouncer. Another one who works for a furniture distributor. The personal trainer. A reminder that AFL players make $14,940 for an 18-game season that spans four months. “It’s enough to pay the bills, but everybody needs money,” says Kirby Griffin, the bouncer/fullback. “Having an extra dollar in your pocket never hurts.”

Now, a Friday-afternoon shout-out to Province web editor Charlie Anderson, a devoted reader of The 10 O’Clock and The 2 O’Clock — if only because these blogs always open their arms to cricket and soccer, two of Anderson’s favourites. That being said, he’s pretty much offended that I’ve ignored the death, last Friday, of Bert Trautmann. “For all those who think soccer players are wimpy crybabies,” Anderson tells me, “spare a thought for former Manchester City goalie Bert Trautman.”

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